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Friday, March 30, 2001

Among the other non-tech, but interesting, events I attended this week was the Argentinean Consulate with Bernardo to view "Diseno." This celebration of Argentinean fashion designers showed off wild and whimsical fashion, shoes and jewelry. Among the techie-looking gear was Maria Marta Facchinelli (www.facchinelli.com), whose clothes convey the ease that we modern folk need for movin' in these hectic times. And Valeria Leik had fun shoes that rivaled part-Manolo Blahnik and part-DONALD J. PILNER (www.valerialeik.com). Before heading out to our next events, we chatted with CNN reporter Constanza Santamaria, who was covering the event.

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>> UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTSWharton's Day in the Life Career Development Program "Careers in the Internet Industry". Wednesday, April 4, 2001, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM ~ Free to members (only open to members). Location: Midtown, given on registration. Reservations: http://www.whartonny.com/wcnyevents.asp.

Thursday, March 29, 2001

There are a few event series our fair town enjoys-each with their own flair, drink specials and following and Thursday night, March 29th, was night of choice for many of them. Comet Systems director of marketing Ben Austin, Internet & Marketing Consultant Nicki Berlyn and Roz Goldfarb Associates Recruiter Amy Fried gathered their friends and following at the Cutting Room for their Internet MFG (Mixer For Grownups). Rhizome held its OpenMouse for art, music and digital concepts at FUN. Allison Hemming's Pink Slip Party was actually a few nights ago but draws a flood of recently laid off dot-commers. And the Village Voice's director of Online Business Development Jim Sosnicky gathered an assortment of actors, military personnel, firemen and dotcommers for the continuation of their historic and landmark watering holes tour at the Tavern on the Green. Jim introduced me to writer Matthew Reiss, who is working on a book on Fidel Castro and TBWA/Chiat/Day's Mikael Marticki. Upstairs Luke Haseloff told me he's moving on from Comet Systems. We chatted for a bit as tables of loud and young girls and boys grew more boisterous in the plush room.

Sure it was raining cats and dogs (again!) in New York on Thursday, March 29th, but that didn't stop the city from slowing down. And just because New Yorkers had to hunt for the scarce taxis, it didn't stop them from heading out to the plethora of events to puddle-jump. For instance there was the Tri-State Private Investors Network seminar on "Success Tactics for Raising Capital" and the Consulate General of Sweden in NY and the EU Center of NY's two day event on "Democracy and the Internet." If you were up for something a bit randier, ACME Talent & Literary agent Lisa Lindo hosted a Sundance Film Festival Reunion Party at Float. For all the skinny girls with wild afros teased out or blown-out straight there were equal amounts of shaggy men in leather or corduroy. Bigstar.com's David Friedensohn and I watched a bit of one of the movies played upstairs while a heavy bass beat moved dancers in the blue-lit dance floor downstairs. Pots of gold glitter face makeup decorated tables and I could see the bartendress was liberal with her application of it as she calmly told me our ¼ pint of Vittal water was $6. It wouldn't be a party without seeing the ever-present Bernardo, who introduced me to his friend Tomas and I saw Andrew Simon chatting with other guests as we gathered my items to head onto the next party.

After going 23 floors up in the freight elevator and checking in through a textile company next door, I entered the slick offices of SJI Associates on Thursday, March 29, where I was greeted with banners on the walls with their logo and opaque clear plastic corrugated and steel cubicles filled with colorful and creative edgy design-work for their impressive list of clients including BBC Worldwide, A&E Televison, Time Warner Cable, Snowball.com and ESPN. Founded in 1991 this design and advertising firm with offices in NY and Boulder has background in corporate identity, websites, packaging and baseball cards. SJI Associates production and technical manager Jay Weiser introduced me to Suzy Jurist. Standing in another hallway I met SJIA designer/webmaster Anthony Cinturati, Karen Lemcke, Laura LaMorta and Ilene Block. Design director of the Boulder office Rich Bacher and David Roth, also of the Boulder camp, gave me some pointers on venues for our Cocktails with Courtney event there on April 11th. I swung by the Mashed Potato Martini Bar for a dollop of the soothing starchy stuff with some pesto before sampling a tasty mini-cheeseburger. Views of the Empire State Building, a block away, wowed clients and guests. Before leaving I got to meet The Segal Company actuarial associate Bob Ressegue and AF Pharma's Andy Faulkner told me they were there to support their hockey-buddy, marketing and sales VP Dan O'Shea. Martinis, cosmos and conversations among friends continued as the nice rainy night wore on, and I headed out to the next soiree.

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to attend "Achieve Peak Performance and Maximize your Internet ROI" sponsored by Internap Network Services http://www.internap.com and Akamai Technologies http://www.akamai.com/. The event was well attended (and well stocked with delicious food!), but by the time I arrived, the speakers had finished and the networking had begun. I did get a chance to speak to Jed Jones, field marketing coordinator for Internap and organizer of the event. He seemed pleased by the turnout, and told me a bit about their recent PNAP (private network access point) partnership with Akamai, their largest customer. Future plans include a move to Japan-something that Jed is looking forward to as an opportunity to practice his Japanese.

Jed introduced me to Eileen Wright, vice president of sales for Internap, and one of the speakers for the evening's event. We talked about the success following the opening of their San Diego office six months ago, and how happy she is with the interest their growth has generated. "The fact that both our technologies are unique," she said, referring to Akamai and Internap, "means that as partners, we occupy a unique share of the market space."

The next night was STARCOM 2001, held at the San Diego Convention Center and presented by the San Diego Business Journal http://www.sdbj.com and Rancho Santa Fe Technology http://www.rsft.com/. What an extravaganza! Billed as "A Business Success Odyssey," the evening was devoted to recognizing those companies and individuals who have achieved great things in San Diego. Sponsors included HNC Software http://www.hnc.com/, Teligent http://www.teligent.com/, American Express http://www.americanexpress.com/, and Imperial Bank http://www.imperialbank.com/.

I spoke with Terry Leber of Teligent http://www.teligent.com who told me that Seattle's recent earthquake brought in a lot of new business for them. Evidently, in one of the larger buildings post-quake, Teligent (wireless communication with a battery backup) was up and running when most systems were down. Nothing like word of mouth to boost business. No sooner did I finish talking to her then the lights dimmed, alerting us that the dinner/awards portion of the evening was due to begin.

Doors were opened and what seemed like thousands of people streamed into a huge ballroom darkly lit with blue and purple lights. It was as though we had stepped into a starry night! I found my assigned table and introduced myself to the others already there - to my left, the very outgoing and boisterous men of BashMedia http://www.bashmedia.tv led by the puckish Sebastian "Bash" Juarez, and to my right, the dignified and quietly humorous Michael Folz Wexler of the law firm of Cowley and Chidester. Luckily as a Gemini, I found it quite easy to constantly switch channels and enjoyed not only my dinner but also my dinner partners. Our dinner conversation ran the gamut from BashMedia's hip and happening dance parties in the name of business development to Mr. Wexler's involvement with the Winston Churchill Society http://www.winstonchurchill.org/ and their upcoming conference this fall in San Diego. I also got a chance to hear about BashMedia's strong presence in the printing industry as well as a recent move into web development tools for small businesses.

The event opened with movie clips of various space-themed movies on three huge screens, punctuated by flashing strobe lights, colored lasers, fireworks, and at one point, open flames shooting up from the stage. Quite a spectacle! Produced by Electronic Theater, the opening sequence set the tone for the rest of the evening, and in fact, you can check out just some of their handiwork for STARCOM 2001 at their website http://www.electronictheater.com/.

The program then began with the presentation of thirteen scholarships to area high school seniors who have excelled in math and science. Awards to the top 25 leaders in five categories then followed: top 25 private companies, top 25 public companies, top 25 emerging companies, top 25 biotechnology companies, and top 25 high technology companies. Needless to say, the announcing of the 125 (total) companies happened so fast that I was not able to keep up…however I did notice that San Diego's biggies: QUALCOMM, Gateway, Sony, SAIC, etc. were included in almost every category.

Following the very long awards presentation, Elaine Grant, editor of Inc. Technology magazine and senior editor of Inc. magazine, came on stage to deliver the keynote address. She spoke of entrepreneurs and their ability to take risks and persevere, and in fact said that current statistics list one out of every six people as a freelancer, or independent professional. She feels that it is during economic downturns that independent professionals truly succeed, as companies tend to view outsourcing as a more economically viable option. As an IP myself, I made sure that I met her after the show to thank her for her encouraging words…

When Elaine was done, it was finally time for the drawing of the various prizes and gift certificates ($1,000 cash, a vacation for two to Hawaii, etc.). However, by that time, most of the multitude had begun to sneak quietly away, causing the drawing to stretch on interminably while they attempted to find a business card in the fishbowl that actually belonged to somebody still in the room! Despite the unfortunate ending, STARCOM 2001 was an enjoyable event full of San Diego's key movers and shakers! Until next time!

Lilia Phleger Benjamin is the president of digitElle http://www.digitelle.net, a public relations agency providing market research, online strategies, and media planning. She is also the co-founder and managing director of Techniquelle http://www.techniquelle.com, a networking organization for creative and tech-savvy people. Lilia can be reached by email at lilia@digitelle.net.

You know, I'd always heard that the Rocktails events were more about Meat Market than Meet & Greet. This was my first Rocktails, and I have to tell you, the rumors aren't true! I had a lovely time at the Tuesday night gathering at Barfly, and met lots of friendly, intelligent and straightforward people. One of the first people I met was Jeffrey Cheen (executive vice president, Time4Team.com http://www.Time4Team.com). He politely opened a space for me at the bar so that I could order a drink. We chatted for a few minutes, and before I moved on, he gave me a lead to someone who would be an excellent contact for me! I also had the pleasure of meeting Brett Cohen who is the General Manager of Rocktails (http://www.rocktails.com). He said that the group consists mostly of middle managers who want the opportunity to network in a relaxed setting. Well, it was a relaxed vibe, but I certainly didn't "relax" (or drink!) enough to think I could dance. Well, it was a "school night", and I had a client meeting early the next morning, so I cut out of there at about 9pm.

Layoff Lounge ~ March 21, 2001

There are a LOT of people out of work these days, as evidenced by the crowd at the Westwood Brewing Company. People were crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, and there weren't nearly enough seats. Rohit Shukla of LARTA (http://www.larta.org) spoke at this, the 2nd Layoff Lounge event. (http://www.layofflounge.com) Rohit wore his traditional black on black, and from the gist of his speech, he WAS in mourning. His opening statements included "De omnibus dubitandum" (doubt everything). He left the crowd with a few significant points: The internet is about lowering costs. It allows smaller companies to compete with the big guys. Be very wary about wireless. When he said that Finland is an anomaly, to be taken with a grain of salt, Keren Taylor (manager of West coast sales, CareerBuilder http://www.careerbuilder.com) called him on it, admonishing him about being so pessimistic, saying "Ignore Finland at your own risk!"

Shortly afterwards, the recruiters in attendance took the stage, and each gave a short introduction and mentioned a few jobs they were filling. The candidates were as attentive listening to the recruiters as they did Rohit. In the other room, Kelly Perdue needed a bullhorn and a bell as he monitored the Venture Capital room, shouting "ONE MINUTE!" over the chatter of the crowd. A couple of people were disappointed that they couldn't talk with the folks with the money unless they were pre-approved by Kelly and Jeremy Gocke... "How did the guy with the cussing teddy bear get approved?" ...but perhaps those who didn't get an interview won't be too discouraged and wi ll come again another time.

AIM - Dinner & a Deal ~ March 28, 2001

The group that met at i Cugini in Santa Monica strained to hear the unamplified voices of the panel, which included Tony Greenberg, CEO of Ramprate (http://www.ramprate.com), Michael Terpin, CEO of Internet Wire (http://www.internetwire.com)and Lisa Crane, Principal of Media Ventures Advisors (http://www.mediaventureadvisors.com). After the panel's presentation, the wine flowed and the schmoozing began. Servers with trays of appetizers circulated around the room, and hungry networkers noshed a bit before the dinner was served. What a fun dinner! I sat at a table with a group with lively conversation... but what struck me as odd was that there were t wo couples at my table! I couldn't justify spending $75 per person for a Dinner and a Deal, and then sit with someone from my own company! I don't know about the other tables, but not much dealing went down where I sat. I wish there had been a bit more mingling, but once you were seated, you were pretty much stuck. Also, about 75 percent of the crowd left before dessert. Not exactly a crisis... but dessert would have been an opportunity to switch tables and meet more people. Near the end of the evening, I had the pleasure of talking with Alexis Bonnell and Ben Isaacson of AIM (http://www.interactivehq.org). Ben seemed quite pleased with the turnout and caliber of attendees. Brad Nye (founder, VIC http://www.TheVic.org) also spared a moment to say hello. (It really did take me a moment to recognize him!) When the evening wrapped up, I gathered my things, retrieved my car from the valet, and began my trek to Laguna Niguel....

Economist Magazine's E-Business Conference ~ March 29+30, 2001

If I had to attend a two-day conference, I can't think of a nicer place to spend my between-session free time than at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel. Beyond the lush accommodations at the conference and the beautiful ocean views during breaks, I was privileged to be able to hear the words of wisdom from some of the top e-business professionals and to see their powerpoint presentations. The audience was very much a suit-and-tie crowd, but it was appropriate to the assembly of CXO and EVP professionals. On a lighter note, I've never seen so many powerpoint presentations, or heard so many NEW words with the "e-" prefix ! There's no way I could summarize such an intense 2-day conference here, but I will tell you that I was very impressed b y both the caliber of the speakers and of the attendees!

Software Council of Southern California ~ April 3, 2001

The 405 is not my friend...as i arrived late to the SCSC's seminar Bootcamp: Developing Successful Strategic Alliances Another batch of powerpoint presentations by another interesting panel. The conversation focused on the differences between a strategic alliance and a joint venture, and the legal implications of these alternatives. The auditorium-style seating didn't really afford a lot of networking opportunities, and I'm not sure what I missed by showing up late, but the audience cleared out pretty quickly afterwards. Their full calendar of events can be found at their website.

American Society of Training & Development ~ April 4, 2001

(This is the shameless plug section of my Cyber Scene article) I gave my Networking Skills seminar (http://www.SoCalNetworking.org) to a very energetic and motivated group of training professionals at the Dept. of Water & Power in Downtown Los Angeles. There were so many attendees, they had to bring more chairs and make more copies of the Networking Bingo game I use as an ice-breaker. Ladies and gentlemen, let me give you a bit of advice: be very cautious when you give an ice-breaker game to a bunch of people who do ice-breakers for a living! I had to ask that the lights be flickered just to get this crowd's attention again! They were a great audience though, great audience participation and some excellent questions during the Q & A...and who'd have guessed that I'd have gotten some really great networking leads, too!

IWirelessWorld ~ April 4, 2001

Later on the same day, I attended the iWirelessWorld conference at the Beverly Hilton. Although I missed the day's keynote address, I thoroughly enjoyed the panel I attended. Mark Wilson (vp business development, Infinite Technologies http://www.InfiniteTechnologies.com), Dick Gossen (CEO, Aeris.net http://www.aeris.net), Randy Boyer (vp business development, FunMail http://www.funmail.com) and Michael Becker (vp business development, ecrio, http://www.ecrio.com). Although the audience for the last session on the last day was sparse, I was thoroughly impressed by the speakers' enthusiasm. Each time a quest ion was asked, they were just itching to comment. Michael Becker caught up with me in the exhibit hall, and as we chatted, he consolidated the panel's remarks to a couple of significant points: As prices become more competitive, carriers can no longer offer discounts to attract and retain new customers, it will be the content and services unique to each provider that will induce customers to make their choices. Those services will likely include rich Instant Messaging over wireless devices. Wireless carriers will need to provide consumer oriented services, and they need to provide services to retain their clients.

Women.Future ~ April 5, 2001

Have you ever attended a live, international videoconference? I hadn't, and as this was my first experience with such an event, I was thoroughly impressed. London, Paris, and several US cities were all connected by satellite for an interactive seminar about the self-empowerment of women. As is to be expected, the satellite connection had its faults, but they turned out to be blessings in disguise: Had we been forced to stare at the "talking heads" on the screen for the entire time, we never would have had the chance to interact with each other (and with the panel!) during the downtime. [I was a guest of panelist Melodie Woods (senior vice president of programming and development, GirlGames.com http://www.GirlGames.com)] It was pleasant to see a handful of people that I knew, but I was lucky enough to meet some new people, too. Of course, the group was primarily women, but there were handful of men in the audience. The roster of " satellite speakers " was very impressive, and you can read more on their website, http://www.womenfuture.com. The highlight speaker was Tom Peters, who did some men-bashing, advertising-bashing, and stereotype-bashing. He used the phrase " old white guy " a lot, usually in the context of old white guys not " getting it " when it comes to communicating with women. This was a great event, and while I didn't torch my bra that afternoon, I did feel a little better about being a woman.

VOJO ~ April 5, 2001

$2 Coronas and free pool makes a great event. I showed up early, and immediately met Kelly Welton (Recruiter, OceanFront Jobs, LTD. http://www.ofjobs.com) We played a game of pool and I won. In fact, I made a few really good shots, which were witnessed by Matt Winslow (Client Consultant, Society of Multidisciplinary Artists http://www.somartists.com), who immediately challenged me to a game, and I lost, with three balls left on the table - not too bad. I ran into a few "regulars" that I often see at these networking events...and they shall remain nameless as I don't want to be responsible for tarnishing their reputations by labeling them as barflies (even though this was at Gotham in Santa Monica).

That was a really REALLY busy couple of weeks, but isn't it funny how it goes - I have nothing at ALL scheduled for next week - so you'll have to wait a bit for another report. If you've got any suggestions about events I should be covering, I'd love to hear about them! Just send me an e-mail and I'll follow up. You might see your group listed here next week!

Chicago showed its entrepreneurial spirit March 27-28 when Garage.com came to town and hosted Bootcamp for Startups. The two-day event consisted of intensive, high-energy workshops on fundraising, business development, recruiting, marketing and more. The crowd of 250+ entrepreneurs learned how to refine their business models, position & pitch their startup to investors and network with peers and potential mentors.One panel that was particularly interesting was "Venture Capital Update," whose panelists consisted of Mark Achler, Warren Holtsberg, Mike Jablo, Matthew McCall, J.B. Pritzker and Guy Kawasaki, as moderator. The panel discussion was positive and the panelists said that the economy has not drastically changed the amount of deals they're getting done.

Guy Kawasaki, CEO of Garage.com, pointed out that most of the VC firms on Sandhill Road in Silicon Valley are doing about half as many deals now as they were doing in the heyday of the Internet. The panelists noted that the quality of deals they have seen has actually increased and that the real change in deals is valuation. J.B. Pritzker said that the valuation of a deal starts with the valuation of the last round and works down from there. Today, the panelists said they spend a good portion of their time working on their current portfolio as opposed to trying to develop new deals.

The panelists were optimistic and honest and the audience seemed pleased. A few of the other seminars included: "Surviving the Storm," "Why bad times make good companies" and "Let's Do Launch."

The networking opportunities were endless and many entrepreneurs mingled during their lunch hour. As always, I visited the sponsors' booths and collected a bunch of marketing goodies. The winning goodie goes to Garage.com for their laptop backpack--very fashionable!

Internet Chamber of Commerce.On March 28, I headed down to the Denver Design Center for the ICC meeting (http://www.icc.org). It was a sellout, as usual; 700 people signed up. At each tech gathering I attend, I try to gauge the mood: do we have recession fever yet? This was a somewhat less energized crowd than the ICC event I attended in January, and people were more dressed up (indicating either a trend toward more formality or more job hunting). But the atmosphere was by no means somber. One reason, I think, is that Denver has not been a live-by-the-Internet, die-by-the-Internet town. The skiing has been great, Boeing is interested in moving to the area, and the real estate market is holding up. Overall the state is going strong.

I saw a fair amount of familiar faces, including SpireMedia’s CEO Mike Gellman and Brandon Shevin. They’ve given their website a new look and are now emphasizing not just online services, but offline design and creative as well. Erich Stein, president of Erich Stein Communications (http://www.erichstein.com), was there. So were Larry and Pat Nelson, hosts of the World Wide Web Radio Show (http://www.w3w3.com). They told me that they are now broadcasting from Boulder, rather than Denver, and at a more reasonable hour. They were originally on at 8 AM on Saturday mornings, when many of us do not adequately function. Brad Spirrison, managing editor of eMileHigh (http://www.emilehigh.com), was showing around business partner Rick Stratton, who was in from Chicago to check out the publication’s planned expansion and to squeeze in some skiing at A-Basin and Vail.

I grabbed some food and joined Scott Zimmerman, a manager at Accenture (http://www.accenture.com); Karen Zimmerman of MarketQuest International; and Charlie Oriez, a consultant with Ciber (http://www.ciber.com). Since everyone had ties to consulting companies, we talked about where consulting in Colorado is headed. Can’t say we came up any projections, though.

I caught up with Natalie Pyle, a technical recruiter at the Hall Kinion (http://www.hallkinion.com) table. She told me about a project, eProfessionals (http://www.e-professionals.org), started by a co-worker. The site helps entrepreneurs find the necessary support services. I also had a chance to talk to Bob Howey, principal with Employer Services Group, and Jim Kloberdanz, VP of sales and marketing with Absolute Performance (http://www.unixdba.com).

First TuesdayOn April 3, I attended First Tuesday (http://www.ftdenver.com). This time the event took place in a new location – Bash, near Coors Field in LoDo. Welcome to 1968. Bash is a dance club fully equipped with light shows and a catwalk. (Luckily we saw no go-go dancers and were spared any ear-piercing, psychedelic rock music. But there was still plenty of atmosphere to resurrect Jim Morrison and Janice Joplin.) It was dark inside, in contrast to the still-light sky outside. That made it a challenge to read people’s name tags. At least the green tag holders glowed under the black lights, making the entrepreneurs easy to spot. (Red, however, did not glow, so it was particularly difficult to zero in on the money people.) Given today’s investment environment, I honestly don’t believe most attendees were expecting to do any deals that night. But I hope the First Tuesday events remain a regular fixture on the Denver scene. After all, they’re great fun!

One of the first people I ran into was Alex Teitz, editor-in-chief of FEMMUSIC (http://www.femmusic.com). A few days earlier, I heard Boulder songwriter/singer/musician/record producer Wendy Woo (http://www.WendyWoo.com) at a local coffeehouse and was totally blown away by her. I was telling Alex all about it. If you like folk/blues and have a chance to see her perform, do it.

I saw Dilpreet Jammu, senior manager of business and service integration for Nortel Networks (http://www.nortel.com). He has recently visited San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle to explore companies for various deals and strategic alliances. I asked him about how Nortel is faring, given the recent downturn in the market. He said that his area, business development, continues to be strong.

I sat down with Don Lubar, a partner with dataDistributions Corporation (http://www.datadistrib.com), to eat all the great Chinese food provided for us. Later I ran into Safa Alai, COO of Consumer Advantage News Network (http://www.can.tv), who told me that the site is now live and webcasting. Among the others I met up with were Doug Smooke, senior program marketing manager at Avaya (http://www.avaya.com); Charlie Bruce of law firm Holme Roberts & Owen (http://www.hro.com); and Dick Pankoski, president/CEO of COSA Technologies.

Finally, I spoke with Steve Swoboda, CFO of Ereo (http://www.ereo.com), the image search-engine company. They’ve done a soft launch, which you all should check out. We talked about snowboarding, Denver real estate, and what VCs plan to do with their money. Then John Czingula, marketing director for Duke Solar, came over to say hello. Steve and John have experience living and working in Hungary, so they compared notes. Then John and I talked about alternative energy technology, an area which has piqued my interest.

Sometime around 9 p.m. I realized that I was among just a handful of people left in the place. So, I headed back to Boulder.

The Conference on World AffairsNext week (April 9-13) I won’t be doing this column because I will be heavily involved with the University of Colorado’s Conference on World Affairs (http://www.Colorado.edu/cwa), which has been going on for 53 years. Courtney Pulitzer will be one of over 100 participants to speak. Others include film critic Roger Ebert, political columnist Molly Ivins, BEA chairman/CEO Bill Coleman, Liberty Media Founder/Former CEO Peter Barton, Oscar and Grammy-winning musicians/producers Dave and Don Grusin, “Earth Girls Are Easy” screenwriter Terry McNally, Mother Jones Publisher Jay Harris, and sixties radical Bernadine Dohrn.

Panels on technology and the Internet will include: The Internet Sucks, Palm Pilot Society: Information as Umbilical Cord, Techno-Morality, Big Brother: Privacy and Consumerism, and Techie Takeover: When Geeks Inherit the Earth. The conference will also explore such topics as: Hairy Palms Make You Go Blind, If You’re Menstruating, You’re Not Thin Enough, The Cult of Oprah, and more serious panels on politics, globalization and disabilities. All panels are free and open to the public. The only downside is that parking is quite limited on campus. You might want to park your car at Crossroads Mall and take the local bus. But please join this continuing social/educational experiment.

Tuesday, March 27, 2001

Sitting in Silicon Alley, it's easy to hear about everything our city and state governments are (or are not) doing for those interested in the Internet, technology, new media and other related fields. And as much as we may read about industry-specific news, it's not always as easy to learn about what other city and states are doing. For instance, our largest neighboring state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, has innumerable initiatives and incentives for business and economic development. I had the enviable opportunity of spending a solid 90 minutes with the distinguished and charming Governor on Tuesday, March 27th. We discussed the state of the industry in New York, the nation, internationally and in Pennsylvania. It was invigorating to speak with someone so forward-thinking about technology and its importance in our world (business, education and socially) - not to mention someone who also has the ability to implement many of these ideas.

There is, for instance, the Link-to-Learn program started by Gov. Ridge as a multi-year, $166 million initiative to expand the use of technology in the classroom. It includes new and upgraded computers for schools and high-tech training for teachers. Link-to-Learn is also developing a network of community-based networks called the Pennsylvania Education Network. On Thursday, the Governor announced that another 21 public and private colleges and universities will receive approximately $5 million in Link-to-Learn grants to expand and strengthen information-technology (IT) training for all of their students. Gov. Ridge also established enterprise applications for the entire state government and an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool to replace its current integrated computer system. Now the entire organization can communicate and operate on a single, standard platform. There are high-tech councils in every region, tax-free KOZs (Keystone Opportunity Zones) and scores of websites with links, forms and more information about starting and maintaining a business in Pennsylvania than you could possibly know what to do with. The state's digital incubators, statewide, are successful examples of government assisting business growth. There are plans for more incubators in new technology areas like bio-tech. Gov. Ridge is also working with the top universities in the Commonwealth to establish more business-fostering relationships between education and business.

As we finished off our demi-plates of fruit and chocolate during our meeting room at the St. Regis, our chat ended with plans to meet again to explore more of what the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has to offer the citizens of the world (and the web)!

Monday, March 26, 2001

The first days of spring brought wind, rain, snow and a flurry of industry events. Starting off the week, the Downtown Alliance sponsored their own event, the Bits, Bytes and Bar at the Divine Bar on Monday, March 26th. Over 200 downtowners came for some glasses of wine and tapas, and to learn about the Alliance's new survey. You can get the more neighborhood-specific survey online now. It provides a more local perspective than the NYNMA survey. The Alliance's survey also has more "drill-down" type questions on rental space, building services, safety and restaurant services than NYNMA's. So if you're a downtown, technology-related professional, run right over to http://www.marketperspectives.com/alliance/survey.cgi and make your voice heard!

Survivors: Silicon Alley, Tue April 10, 2001, Baruch College Conference Center. Mindshare Ventures follows the success of the sold-out iStartup Fever with Survivors: Silicon Alley and Speed-pitching. The full-day conference is a must for those running, associated with or invested in companies with dangerous burn rates. Admission $195 includes registration for Speed-pitching. Deadline for submitting biz plans 3/26. For conference agenda and to register, please visit www.mindshareventures.com.

When asked to cover the GasPedal Feast for Starving Entrepreneurs, I eagerly accepted, as I was literally a "starving entrepreneur"--I live and work out of a 1973 VW Bus! When GasPedal president Andy Sernovitz began speaking his words raised my battered (and hungry) soul (the usual entrepreneurial roller-coaster ride). He spoke of the undying resilience of entrepreneurs to ignore all odds, to turn a blind eye to "reason," to shrug off the endless ridicule of our friends and family--all in the name of executing our vision. Yes, we are living in a tough investment climate, and the next year is going to be rough. But, he said, these are the times that make a J.P. Morgan or a Rockefeller. It is in times like this, blisteringly tough and full of panic, that the opportunity to make the real BIG money lies.

I met Ben Appen, CEO of Alkindi (http://www.alkindi.com), a movie-recommendation service and chatted with Stephen Gilberg, publisher and CEO of HappyHours.com (http://www.HappyHours.com). Debbie Garrett, CEO of Grooming Men (http://www.groomingmen.com), could make it on the strength of her positive attitude and an interesting product and business model. I also ran into Patrick Dori, president of Beach 'N' Billboard (http://www.beachnbillboard.com). Not even billboards in the sand could prepare me for perhaps the most likely candidate for billionaire in the room that night--Stephanie Schwab, CEO of Erotigo (http://www.erotigo.com). Like icing on a cake (to complement the ice cream bars), a handful of savvy, early-stage investors were smattered throughout the party. I first ran into Bruce Ackerman, president of One Touch (http://www.onetouchcorp.com). His business is booming, and he figured it's his time now to help out some struggling start-ups. Then I ran into Jo Rosler, COO of Angel Society (http://www.angelsociety.com), a provider of information, communication and transactional services for early-stage private equity investors, early-stage companies and professional business service providers. Finally (saving the nicest treat for last), I had a chance to meet Ben Goodman, manager of NYNMA's highly-praised Angel Investor Program (http://www.angel.nynma.org). The NYNMA Angel Investors Program matches promising start-up companies with experienced Angel investors to facilitate the growth of New York's new media industry. About half of the companies that present at their monthly breakfast receive seed funding of up to $2,000,000.

Kudos to Andy Sernovitz and GasPedal for putting together an evening that made me proud to be an entrepreneur. GasPedal truly understands what it's like to work in the trenches.

Global Venture Network, held on Friday, March 23, 2001 at the Metropolitan Club on Fifth Avenue was a sellout. One of the highlights, throughout the day, were distinguished venture capitalists who spoke as panelists and offered insight for small companies. One of the speakers was Trident Capital managing director Venetia Kontogouris who said she will be spending more time with portfolio companies being pro-active to help them survive this difficult time. The consensus was that there is plenty of funding available, but securing will be selective and more difficult as the due diligence will be stiffer. Karen White, a principal of Pequot Capital Management spoke on "getting back to basics." Attending the conference and absorbing the intelligence were Pillsbury Winthrop LLP attorney Emily Campbell, Wilby Capital's Yoko Fukaya, Aclion Global Recruiting's Seth Damski, The Guerrilla Guide's Michael Roney and Schroeder Partners principal Rebecca Chiu. InHanse Corp. CEO & Chairman Robert Dansby, PhD told me about their hosting of next exchange services and I chatted with Maryland-based the Chancellor Group MD Rodney Azama; Empire State Development's Jack Van Wie, who mentioned they have money for NYC startup ventures; Oracle's Jennifer Kelley; Mindshare Ventures's Richard Friedman; LabMorgan's Alice Laidlaw; Carnegie Hill Ventures's Philip Siller and Katalyst's Sandeep Thrakar.

SAN DIEGO-Well, after a month hiatus, I have come back knowing one thing for sure…size DOES matter!

I am of course referring to the Blue Horizon, located at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) in La Jolla. Nestled on the beautiful wooded campus of the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), the Blue Horizon is the largest computer in the US, the 8th most powerful in the world, and currently the most powerful available for academic research. And if that doesn't thrill you, try this on for size: 1,153 Power3 processors, 144SMP High Nodes, 576 GB memory, 1.7 TFLOPS peak speed, and 5.1 TB disk storage. When you figure that this computer can compute at the rate of 1.7 trillion real numbers per second (not just integers), you can't help but get a geek high.

Why all this talk of computers? Because the fifth Internet Strategy SIG was hosted by the SDSC, and we were treated by Mike Vildibill, executive director, to a tour of the high security computer room. Thrilling stuff, even to someone who did not know what in the world they were talking about (that would be me).

Rob Gordon, founder of the Internet Strategy SIG, has really worked hard to build this group and bring in speakers of a high caliber. At this meeting, taking place on March 15th, our speakers were Matt Ramuzzi, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Rent.com, and Steve Hundley, CEO of iStrategy Inc.

Both men talked about the current energy crisis hitting Southern California and ways to move ahead despite the paranoia in the virtual marketplace. Matt's presentation focused on e-commerce…what it is and how to do it successfully, while Steve took participant's examples and applied his marketing know-how to help problem-solve.

It would appear that despite our rolling blackouts, and the almost daily news of companies handing out pink slips, the mood in San Diego right now seems to be one of decisiveness. Companies and entrepreneurs are going back to the basics, coming up with solid business plans and slashing their burn rate. They may be getting leaner, but they are definitely getting more efficient, and time will tell if their tactics pan out.

Area organizations such as the San Diego Entrepreneurs Group, the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance, and the San Diego MIT Enterprise Forum are all working hard to stay one step ahead of the dotcom fallout by offering seminars and networking events that provide information and assistance. By pulling together, and not falling prey to the media hype surrounding the tech scene in San Diego, we stand a good chance of actually making it through without any serious damage. Until next week!

There is so much to tell you about! In the interest of saving bandwidth, I'll skip any introduction and get right into the thick of it:

WebWomenLAMarch 2, 2001

WebWomenLA had their first official meeting at Fu's restaurant in West LA on March 2nd. It was wonderful to see synergy in such a large group of people. The meeting's attendees had a common goal - to establish themselves as an entity for women in New Media in Los Angeles. Many of the people there had migrated from WebGrrls-LA, and aren't looking back. The group is so new they don't even have a website yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Vojo @ Manhattan BeachMarch 8, 2001

Don't let the cute name fool you--networking at a Vojo event is serious business. I'd been in meetings since 7:30am that day, so at one point, I leaned against a pillar for a moment's rest...and was immediately approached by a friendly woman who took advantage of the fact that I wasn't already talking to someone, and started a conversation with me.

Here's a funny anecdote that made the rounds at this event: A pair of men approached a professionally dressed woman having an animated conversation with a small group. The men introduced themselves, and asked if they could join the conversation. She rebuked them saying, "I'm having a conversation here!" and turned away. The guys shrugged, backed away and moved on. Turns out this woman and her group of flight attendant friends were just having a drink at the hotel bar, and weren't Vojo networkers! The guys didn't even realize the women weren't wearing nametags! OOPS!

I would heartily recommend attending this group's events, which are scattered all over the Southland. Everyone (save the flight attendant!) was friendly, open and polite. Have your business cards at the ready, and lots of 'em. Leave your shyness at home and practice one of your most important business skills at Vojo!

Finally, It's not a secret, as far as I can tell, but I'm often asked...so here's the answer: Vojo doesn't mean anything. I talked with Tim Stinson (co-founder, Vojo) and he told me that it was catchy, pronounceable, and available as a domain. Hey, whatever works!

Spring Internet WorldMarch 14-16, 2001

"Somber" is the word I'd choose to describe the vibe at iWorld this year.

I met up for lunch with my "Pasadena Partner", Kyrsten Johnson (read her article below!) and we started our day with lunch at the Original Pantry. We walked in at 1pm and were seated among a crowd of badge-wearing boys carrying big black bags of tchotchke. chach·ka or tchotch·ke n. Slang A cheap, showy trinket. Some booth workers were kind of stingy with their loot: At one booth, Kyrsten actually filled in a form with everything short of her blood type in order to get a "fun-size" candy bar. At another however, a man was passing out foam lizards on a "leash", and he couldn't give them away to the greedy crowd fast enough. Those lizards were a hit!

The best piece of schwag I got was an iMac-red retractable phone cord, compliments of iAsiaWorks. The girl working the booth was very friendly and polite and gave me my choice of a baseball cap, t-shirt (I had a personal moratorium on t-shirts for this event!) or the RJ-11 cord. That was a no-brainer.

There are plenty of places you can read up on what happened & what didn't... but I will share with you some comments I collected:

"There was a lot of elbow room," said Alan Elmont, partner in the recruiting firm of SEPA Systems, LLC. "I was working the floor and everyone is hiring salespeople, not techies."

"I went yesterday afternoon, and it was just about the quietest show I've ever attended. No sense of excitement or exuberance anywhere (though the kids banging drumsticks in the big Genuity "machine" were trying awfully hard) Liz Fuller, Leaping Lizard Productions

"The companies that should have been in the "exhibit hall ghetto" were right up front with the big guys, and there were lots of open spaces in the back." (Anonymous overheard quote)

I cut out of there at around 4:30, hoofing it back to my parking space so I could dump my big black bag before beginning the parties.

Tier One's post-party at the Hotel Figueroa A refreshing light dinner was to be had at the Tier One party. Catering was done by La Salsa, and there was a three-piece mariachi serenading us. Networking was sparse as the population, but I did get to talk to a few people I've seen around. Ray Goldsmith, (account executive, AT&T), enjoyed a cigar and a Corona poolside. (Although the invitations said "swimming suits optional", nobody opted for a dip)

I was greeted by Don Baarnes and Greg Faciane early on, but they were deep in conversation the rest of the evening, and I didn't want to interrupt.

I also ran into Linda Thurman, (president, NTV: The Television Cooperative) who was excited about the following night's open meeting at iWorld. Linda explained that NTV is a cooperative for the distribution of traditional and New Media content on cable.

Said Cindy McMahen (owner, Nexus Interactive), "I'd have to say [the Tier One party] was good for me. Although there were fewer people than I expected, I connected with some interesting folks, and I met another SEO expert. I enjoyed a quick bite while resting my aching feet -- and made it home with plenty of time kiss the kids g'night."

VIC's post-party at the Mayan Showing up at around 7:30, I found free parking at a meter. Last year's "wrap around the building" line was non- existent - I walked right in. There were plenty of hot hors d'oeuvres and not much of a line for those either.

There was a very energetic woman leading a drum circle, and at one point, a man in the middle of the dance floor was twirling two glowing schwag yo-yo's in around-the-world fashion, as if he were a fire-dancer. He didn't hit anyone.

Keep in mind, I'm comparing this year's event with last year's, when it was so crowded you'd be wearing more of your drink than you drank...My personal speculation about the reason that not as many people were there: a $20 admission fee is kind of steep when you're an out-of-work dot-com refugee.

The second level was reserved for non-profit exhibit space, and I recognized a few faces there, as well. One face I didn't see was that of the founder of VIC, Brad Nye. I heard he was there, but that he'd cut his trademark ponytail so I probably wouldn't have recognized him anyway.

The quality of people was high...it was the quantity that was lacking: I had a fun chat with Bill Rini, of Web405 notoriety (I say that with affection, Bill!) discussing the ins and outs of public transportation in France. Also went into the finer points of Harry Potter with Matthew Burgess and his girlfriend Kat.

The most obscure part of the evening was the impromptu meeting in the ladies' room, where I met up with LeeAnn Webster ("Queen of Fun" Single Solutions). While we were talking, we drew three other lipstick-applying women into our conversation. Rubi, Clerisse and Robin exchanged business cards with us, and we all promised to keep in touch. Boys, you can KEEP your golf course. Give me a good girly-chat in the bathroom any day. That's where the real business takes place!

So much for brevity, but how do you cover Internet World in 750 words? I'll have more for you next week, with my first-hand perspective of Rocktails and the second edition of the Layoff Lounge.

After luxuriating in the painfully trendy lower East Side, I swung uptown to the equally painfully trendy Hudson Hotel (in the mid-upper-West side). Ian Schrager's trademark lime green highlights with stark white walls, leading up to a lush, landscaped reception lures trend-seeking trendites from all around. After taking a gander in "de bah," I spotted the treasure of my hunt - the newly shorn and sexy LA-based The Vic's Brad Nye. Gone was his trademark ponytail. Iinstead I was greeted with a very Richard Gere-looking Brad Nye. Brad was in town for a few days to attend business meetings and invited some friends to join him for drinks at Schrager's hot-spot in town. As usual, he was amidst a flock of friends who flew in from the West Coast (or from the Lower East Side) to share in his smile and stories. All was well. I chatted with Schwartz PR President Steven Wright-Mark, slightly tanned from his trip to LA for Internet World, Danielle Cyr and New Leaders for New Schools CEO Jonathan Schnur. Ariane de Bonvoisin, IBreakfast.com's Alan Brody and his wife Ellen were also visiting, as was the dashing Lucent Technologies Mads Lillelund. PSA Inc.'s Robert King introduced me to CEO David Walsh, with whom I shared a nice salad and glass of wine while chatting with two actresses under consideration for PSA's new production, "This is Only A Test." As usual, a night out in New York proved to be a safari of people and places and promises of more adventures to come!

>> SHAKERS & STIRRERS"Check out the site for the latest in who's movin' and shakin'!For the whole scoop, go to: http://www.thecyberscene.com/newyork/index.shtml"

DDB Exec Elected Mayor of Cannes

=================================================ADVCut through the crap! 4 days can change the direction of your business and your career! Attend the only event for finding partnerships, business development, and fast-tracking your business and career and success in 2001. AIM Annual in Tampa May 12th-16th, Use this code: (cyberscene) and receive $100 off admission and register to win a free exhibit or gift certificates! Visit www.aimannual.com for information on the event about real issues, real business, and real success! Register now and use the AIM staff to help find you partners before the event!=================================================ADV

In an attempt to help facilitate better networking for new media professionals and "Scenesters," here are some points that will be added during the weeks.

In these busy times, when you call upon someone, ask if they have a moment to speak. They may be in the middle of something and can't take your call at the moment. Your asking will incline them to take the minute or two to speak with you, or appreciate your sensitivity.

>> THIS WEEK
Excuse me, is that my identity in your pocket?
Cats and dogs couldn't keep the media and good people away
MetamorphaNet's metamorphosis
From Women in the Alley to Men in the Valley
The Milken Conference and the REAL Economy ~ by Tery Spataro

The Cyber Scene in Denver ~ by Suzanne Lainson
The Cyber Scene in Los Angeles ~ by Krysten Johnson
The Cyber Scene in San Diego ~ by Lilia Phleger Benjamin

>> UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Wharton's Day in the Life Career Development Program "Careers in the Internet Industry". Wednesday, April 4, 2001, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM ~ Free to members (only open to members). Location: Midtown, given on registration. Reservations: http://www.whartonny.com/wcnyevents.asp.

Thursday, March 22, 2001

You may remember Hsaio-ping Jao for her phenomenal job organizing the Nerds Night Out black tie party in November 1999. If you don't, then I'm sure you'll still be just as interested to learn that this dynamic woman has formed a new company called MetamorphNet. The new economy development firm is providing strategic consulting services to diverse enterprises, with special interests in technology-related, globally-oriented business development solutions. Many of their clients, including a sampling from the UN, were at the launch party at the Essex Lounge on Thursday night, March 22nd. Hsaio-ping introduced me to Wheelhouse's Robert Coverdale, Imagine Software's Sherwin Phatax and Level M's Roger Williams Meyer. As tasty little empanadas passed by, I chatted for a bit with NYSIA's executive director Bruce Bernstin, author Larry Aronson, Jeremy Kagan and SiliconAlleyStation.com's Bob Ponce. Hsaio-ping, the CEO and president, introduced me to her COO Clara Troncoso. This 100% self-funded, woman-owned company is another testament to the strong women in the Alley, making businesses and lives for themselves. Go Hsaio-ping!

Ever since the Sandra Bullock movie "The Net" came out, there has been increasing media attention given to identity theft online, as well as basic privacy issues surrounding the Internet. While it may have seemed far-fetched to some movie-goers at the time, it is unfortunately becoming more and more real. In fact, Silicon Alley's Omar Wasow was on NBC's "The Today Show" Thursday, March 22nd, talking about identity theft and what you can do about it. And last week, the New York New Media Association featured probably its most popular panel to date: "None of Your Business: The Politics and Business Implications of Privacy" at the Equitable Building on Thursday, March 15th. In addition to presenting a sold-out panel with illustrious speakers, NYNMA also released its first white paper on the topic.

The first of three planned white papers, the research was produced in large part by NYNMA's board of directors; its policy committee; Primedia Ventures' Jason Chervokas; Morrison & Foerster's John Kennedy, John Delaney and Matthew Meade; and PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Tom Hyland and Peter Petrusky. The next two will be on intellectual property and taxation. And, in the 'Net-interest of things, it's all online and will be used by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York for the committee report on internet privacy they are producing. Check out NYNMA's report online.

After an eloquent introduction by NYNMA Director of Educational Programs Ellen Auwarter, NYNMA Programs Committee Chair and Board Member Howard Greenstein introduced the panel and the topic. Then they got down to business and the discussions heated up. CNN's Burden of Proof Co-host Roger Cossack kept the conversation moving smoothly among the panelists: The New York Times Columnist William Safire, DoubleClick Inc. Chief Privacy Officer Jules Polonetsky, Guardent, Inc. President Dr. Larry Ponemon, Center for Democracy and Technology Policy Analyst Ari Schwartz, and Morrison & Foerster LLP Chief Architect, Safe Harbor Privacy Accord with EU, and Partner Barbara Wellbery.

As the "elder statesman" of the panel, William Safire was among the liveliest. He drew lots of laughter with comments like, "you're all concerned about privacy because you have something to hide! We all have something to hide - we're living beings!" Roger Cossack did a great job of moving things along, and Jules Polonetsky offered a reality check regarding what happens to people's data, that it's not such a bad thing to get targeted emails or to be victim of credit card fraud. Larry Ponemon, who created the privacy practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, offered insightful perspective, as did Ari Schwartz. Barbara Wellbery was brilliant with her great (and global) perspective.

The sometimes vehement, but always interesting, debate covered such topics as "Do we have any more privacy left?" "Can companies change their data collection and exploitation models and still make money?" and "Can self-regulation work." As Jules pointed out, "technology is not good or bad; it's the companies that are good or bad."

Privacy was certainly a big issue and one that's going to affect businesses this year, whether they do business online or not. Barbara brought up the point that businesses need to develop privacy practices and laws based on the type of information they collect, the purpose and the planned use. We have to develop a new approach to the information being collected, including the reason and the purposes. She also warned that if the industry doesn't self-regulate, which she feels is the best approach, there will be more regulation from the government. And that would have fewer nuances and be more restrictive. Depending on how far Congress takes these issues, it could change how information on people is gathered. On the other hand, William Safire argued that the government should get involved because the Internet deals with so many communications issues. To that, Larry Poneman mused, "Can we rely on business to do that which is right?"

Opt-in/opt-out and the pros and cons of this point were also discussed for a while. This is where Safire and Polonetsky sparred the most. Jules Polonetsky's points were that while Safire was all about Opt-in, Polonetsky attempted to educate him on the vast issues on the topic. There needs to be much more research on the topic before the government, or even industry initiatives, step in and regulate. While Congress is just getting up to speed on a lot of the terminology (they're knowledgeable just enough to be dangerous), and they're learning the issues. They will, Polonetsky promised, be intimately involved but we want to make sure that it's at a sophisticated and informed level. The last thing we want is for the government to not fully understand the issues and make clumsy steps that make life difficult for consumers. He reminded us that it's not the data exchange that's the problem. It's only a problem if the data becomes lost or abused. The other issue the industry needs to contend with, and that will involve changing consumer habits and expectations is paying for content or services on the 'Net. Businesses were too quick to offer too much for free, so now consumers expect it so. Now many companies realize they need to make money and either charge or explain what they're doing with the information compiled.

This isn't such a bad thing either. There are a lot of benefits that consumers can gain, including customized services and targeted emails on the brands they buy. However, it's not entirely sensible, since you have to rely on people to take action. And the reality of the matter is that many people are inactive, busy or don't care. So, they don't act on those targeted emails. It's not that they don't care about their privacy; they just don't take the time to answer - especially when they perceive the messages as spam.

Speaking of spam, the dinner for sponsors, board members and selected guests was hosted by Spamex.com. I spoke with Co-CEO Justin Greene, who explained the product in depth to me. In an effort to reduce the amount of spam email, you sign up with their system and send out a yourname@spamex.com email address to all the sites where you register. For each site, you create a new Spamex account. Sounds like a lot more email addresses to create, no? Au contraire! All your Spamex accounts forward to one email address, which you specify. Then, when you need to change your email, you simply update the forwarding record with Spamex. You don't have to change your email address with the innumerable sites where you are registered! Pretty nifty, oui? Another major benefit is that if you receive an email that is not from one of the sites where you've signed up, you can go to the Spamex site (via a handy link provided in the email) and see which dog ratted out your email. Then you can deal with them accordingly. Another handy-dandy shortcut that you can add to your browser is a "Links" menu bar, which makes it almost a one-step process to create more Spamex accounts. There are more features, all of which are outlined and demoed at www.spamex.com.

Among some of the notable guests who took part in this heady night were iXL's Diana Butler and James Burton, FullAudio's Deb Newman, and Morrison & Foerester's John Kennedy, not to mention about 200 other savvy net-heads! The dinner and dessert (a fabulous ice cream-cookie- cake concoction) at Chez Louie's satiated the hard-working NYNMA board, sponsors and panelists. And if you, sadly, missed it all - never fear! You can catch highlights on the cyber cast online.

Wednesday, March 21, 2001

I attended the Milken Institute 2001 Global Conference (March 19-21) held at the famous Beverly Hilton (Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton for those of you who remember). The conference theme was the ECONOMY. Michael Milken drew an impressive crowd of 1000 attendees from business and academic backgrounds. The speaker roster was even more impressive with Nobel Laureates and leading business executives. It was truly a heady conference with a focus on speculations about the economy. The R word was used on several occasions. Yes, Dorothy we are in a recession. Mr. Milken opened the Tuesday's lunch with a talk about the real economy. "Hmm the real economy versus the flake economy...What's that about?" I thought. This discussion focused on the stock market and if it bottomed out yet. Not yet--but very close, though I believe when it does all of us who have been holding our cash will be spending it like crazy. Wednesday's breakfast offered up a slide show, one of which was quite interesting. The panel was The US: Economics, Markets and Policy. The slide graphed all the recessions from the depression. It seems to me as though recession should be an expected part of our delicate and intricate US economy. Meaning it's natural. Is this recession different because of the new industries? Or are the new industries affected the most because they are still in infancy?

Alvin Toffler, Future Shock author, romanced the technological advance of Internet and biotech industries, as a significant historical point with influences that affect all global aspects. He sees the next evolutionary phase as a fusion of technology and biology. Mr. Toffler was inspiring, and I asked him if he saw the fusion of technology and biology as the elimination of humanity. He looked at me with a bit of a twinkle in his eye and said "I would take deep offense in that" and so would I. Barry Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, brought us all back from the future to the reality we are facing today. It was also the common sense business practices of Leonard Riggio, Chairman and CEO of Barnes and Noble, who said it best: "Spending drives a healthy economy." Here in the US we are consumers and when we don't buy we don't survive! Steven Milunovich, Managing Director and Global Technology Strategist, Merrill Lynch, talked about buying trends in technology, the influence of Y2K spending on a panel regarding US: Economics, Markets and Policy. I wanted to ask Mr. Milunovich if his opinions regarding tech spending reached the ML brokers who were buying stocks for clients like myself? Byron Wien, Chief US Investment Strategist, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, spoke about the paper he recently published on "Issues of Integrity". The paper discusses the street analysts's integrity and conflict faced between too much enthusiasm and reality. I approached Mr. Wien after the discussion and asked him if we should remain conservative? He said yes. I'm going to email him and get a copy of his paper for anyone interested in reading it I'll post it on my web site.

At the basis of every conference was the Internet industry. Us "early true believers" can feel confident that we were successful in creating a real industry. I was frustrated with conference perception that the Internet was only content-based. Yes, it is content-based but it truly is a tool. How you use the tool will determine how your business will make money. Keep in mind the Internet industry is only 7 years old. We're just at the beginning! In a panel discussion on Venture Capital and Entrepreneurs: Financing Ideas, Yossi Vardi, President, International Technologies and founder of ICQ, displayed a slide, which pictured a roller coaster and the Internet. He asked us where on the roller we are. The majority of us raised our hands to panic. Hmm panic, is it real panic or panic induced by group hysteria?

All and all I enjoyed the conference, Mr. Milken is doing a great service. I met many interesting people including Mr. Mike Lefkowitz, executive director the Samueli Foundation; Mr. Robert Widener, The Cyberspace Group, war room design firm; Mr. Edward Tuck of the Falcon Fund; Mr. James Sproule; Dr. Aleksandr Surikov, senior counselor economic affairs, Embassy of the Russian Federation; and Auste N. Viesulas. The attendee demographic mix consisted of 75% white male business executive, 23% minority business executive, 2% young aspiring entrepreneur. It is the young entrepreneur who would have truly benefited in attending finding both money and mentor.

I felt like I was the only Internet executive on hand, but much to my surprise I ran into a couple of West Coast peers: John Bates of HotWax, Tony Greenberg and I heard Brad Nye was around. I also met outside of the conference with Peter Hirshberg, Mark Jeffrey, Michael Young (CEO and President of Alton Entertainment), who all gave me insight into lay of Internet economy for LA. New York we're not alone.

It was raining cats and dogs, and the wind gusts reached over 40 miles per hour in some parts of town. Everyone who showed up was dripping wet and closely resembled a lovely, drowned wharf rat. But those were dear friends who showed up with their support for my impromptu Cocktails with Courtney event on Wednesday, March 21st. And what, pray tell, would prompt me to host a soiree at such a late notice on such a wet night? Well, dry martinis are always an allure, but it actually was at the behest of a few other sources. You see, dear readers, pauvre, fatique Courtney pulled together a special soiree because the New York Times Style section and Japan TV needed an event to document for several stories they are doing on us. What's a media darling to do but comply? And so, we hosted a small soiree at Flute Flatiron, the uptown champagne bar's newest branch, for friends and supporters we've know over the years.And what support we got! More than 100 wonderful, darling people risked life and limb to say hello, and flash their pearly whites for the NYTimes Style photographer, the very charming Christopher Smith. The Knot.com's Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder Carley Roney, and CEO and Co-Founder David Liu came in from the rain to dry off and say "hello." The Globe's Todd Kritzleman came by to catch up on news before heading out to former partner Stephan Paternot's birthday party "way over on the West side." Forbes.com's Josh Kruter, Iguana Interactive's James Ontra, Comedy Central's Lara Stein and Cardmine's Harald Neidhardt all stopped by to hang out. Volker Detering of EventMe.com and Start Abroad.com had his photographer - a German doing a piece on his site - come by, and Live Idea's MD Larry Smith enjoyed the lounge atmosphere of the champagne bar. Steve Masur, of Masur & Associates, long-time Alleyite Seth Price, and Sports Futures' Chris Jones' stopped by before heading back out to a business dinner. San Jose Mercury News' New York Technology Correspondent Maureen Fan chatted with guests, such as Black Logic's Scott Ettin, Mark Filstrup and Iquana Studio's Jason Jercinovic. Etiquette International's Hilka Klinkenberg came in from the rain to chat with good friend and NYNMA's Director of Educational Programs Ellen Auwarter and iXL's Diana Butler.

Vincent Grimaldi networked a bit with Grand Central Holding's Greg Belmont and Lawyer Access' Josh Margulies and Kris Zdyb. CAP Gemini Ernst & Young's Julio Cassels, Jon Serbin, The Economist's Marc Seago and LocalBusiness.com's Mo Krochmal all shared a glass of good cheer and relaxed to some mellow tunes before heading back out to battle the weather. EWomp was well represented in Alan Friedman and Daniel Alvarez, while David Behin of yada yada showed his support. Juno's President and CEO Charles Ardai stopped in, and one of sponsor Aperian.com's directors, Humberg Powell, stopped by. Korn/Ferry International was the other sponsor, and together we raised a small amount of cash for the East Harlem Technical school again. Redwood Partner's Kailah Rove, Michael Flannery said "hello" and chatted with Administaff's Mark Elis and FullAudio's Debbie Newman.

Former MIT students Mark Lucente came with his wife, LabMorgan's Kathleen Kenney Lucente, and ADIA Global's Shuja Keen. Koko Interactive's Glen Lipka, Katie Peters and Spencer Spinnell dried off for a bit after a very bad downpour. The City of Yokohama's Justin Zimmerman was able to chat a bit with one of the Japan TV producer's Miuki. The Square.com's James Marciano and I exchanged some thoughts about the "Silicon Alley Stories" upcoming documentary, and producers Thurston Smith and Vittoria Frua came by to hand out flyers to the April 6th showing during the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. Black Tie sponsor Interactive Futures' Steve Shaer came by at the tail end with a friend and bought me a delicious round of fine champagne to celebrate the rainy First Night of Spring. Dr. Askia Davis, from the Chancellor's office also came out on this wild night to represent the East Harlem Technical School, our beneficiary for this year's Holiday Black Tie. DF Consulting's Dawn Fotopulos looked as fresh as a daisy, as usual, despite the downpour, and my long-time friend James O'Connor was the Dapper-est Dan I'd ever seen on a night like this.

Alas! All good things must come to an end and after a lovely glass of champagne (or two) to brace ourselves for the night winds, the crowd thinned and I headed out into the Wizard Of Oz-like winds to find my way home.

Tuesday, March 20, 2001

Boulder Chamber of Commerce's "e-Train" Series On March 20 I went over to the Boulder Chamber of Commerce to catch Bob Burgin, CEO of Finali. His company is a Westminster-based contact center which integrates automated and live customer support. It provides best-of-breed contact center software, live reps, and a knowledge base (they track every single customer interaction and do a performance analysis). According to Bob, typically a company spends between $5-$50 million a year on customer service. Automation will cut those expenses and 50-80% of customer interactions can be automated. Finali draws upon a team that collectively has built offline call centers for 38 Fortune 500 companies.

One technology Finali uses is what it calls a netSage. Essentially it is a person-in-a-box which sits on a client's website and guides visitors. An actor (who can be cast to convey a unique corporate image) is videotaped responding to a variety of customer interactions and then those images are offered up at the client's site along with the appropriate text responses. All sorts of social cues have been programmed in so that the netSage behaves exactly as you would expect the perfect support rep to behave. He or she is helpful, non-threatening, and adjusts his/her conversation to fit your experience level. And the netSages get smarter: their repertoire expands whenever new questions are asked of live service reps and then catalogued. Even more important, netSages are a bargain. A typical interaction involving a human service rep costs $9.00; the same interaction using a netSage, just twenty-five cents. (It doesn't cost much to feed those guys in the boxes and they never need bathroom breaks.)

Bob was speaking as part of the Chamber's "eTrain" series. Wow, this guy is good. It's hard to come up with an analogy which best describes his presentation demeanor. The terms "salesman" and "evangelist" don't quite fit because the first implies a rehearsed slickness and the second an over-the-top zeal. Most apt, perhaps, would be to compare his style to the way Walt Disney used to open those "Wonderful World of Disney" shows: a pied piper you'd trust enough to follow anywhere.

Boulder Business Series The next night I went to the Boulder Business Series at the historic and charming Hotel Boulderado. This organization brings together graduates from the top MBA programs around the country. Past president Patty Rivera, CEO/founder of KidItCard and Sloane graduate, was there, as always. I also talked to Tony McDonald, president of Marz Capital Corporation.

The presentation was by Sheila Paxton, Frontline Group's EVP for instructional design, technology, and deployment. She said that by 2003, 60% of organizations will have e-learning platforms. The industry has progressed much more rapidly than analysts predicted. Reasons include cost reduction, flexibility, and the fact that these courses support adult learning models (i.e., allowing you to get what you need when you need it). Eight hours of instructor-led training can be compressed into two hours of online training.

Colorado Software and Internet Association Breakfast On March 23 I headed down to Denver for a Colorado Software and Internet Association breakfast at the Pinnacle Club, which is part of Top of the Rockies (37th floor of Qwest Towers). The best that can be said for leaving Boulder at 6:30 in the morning is that you miss most of rush hour.

Cathy Ewing, the executive director of CSIA, is doing a bang-up job. Not only is she everywhere, the CSIA has been extremely proactive in terms of community building. More than 200 people showed up at this event to network, have breakfast, and hear the presentation. Among the contingent from law firm Holme Roberts & Owen were Mark Weakley, Suzy Thevenet, Charlie Bruce, Charles Maquire, and Linda Wackwitz. Plus I met Sue Oakes, VP/general counsel at Requisite Technology, who used to be at HRO. Also there were Bill Chambers, president/CEO, and Dave DuPont, VP, marketing and business development, for LeftHand Networks.

Since most of the tables were sponsored, I grabbed a seat at one of the open ones and ended up with a good mix of people. Kevin Johnson, a lawyer with Hollard & Hart, mentioned that he had three Harleys. John Maguire, with the British Consulate in Denver talked about the upcoming UK Tech Forum to be held at the Denver Convention Center April 19. Also at the table were Ross Duncan, president/CEO of OMA Incorporated, Leanne Hurley, director of solution sales for Nupremis, and Russ Baldermann, area channel manager for Jamcracker.

The presentation, "A View from the Valley," was given by Steve Pearse, CEO/chairman of Akroria Networks (http://www.akroria.com) and chairman of Inara Networks. He opened his presentation by telling us how much portable hardware he was leaving at his table and sharing with us the line he heard at MIT: "Nerds set your phasers to stun." In other words, set those cell phones to vibrate. Among his points:

*Software is the key to value creation. Hardware is hardware but what differentiates one company from another is its service and its people.

*There is inertia in IT departments. You must offer a truly compelling IT strategy for them to make a switch. For your company to succeed today, your product has to be 10X better than the competition in terms of cost improvement, density (size reduction), and/or performance.

*Hire people from your customers because they already know what those companies need.*The only difference between Denver and San Jose is money. There is a lot of fear of investing outside of San Jose. But a lot of Silicon Valley VCs are setting up Denver offices. It's a great time to invest; VCs are still closing rounds. *The trouble with wireless: limited spectrums.

Before I left I had chance to talk to a few more folks. Mark Weakley introduced me to John Caprio and Brian Smith from the Boulder marketing firm, Sonant. And he also introduced me to Robert Welch, VP of business development for Tango Technologies, a Boulder-based IT outsourcing partner. We talked about recent developments alternative energy, about the need to link old economy and new economy execs in a common forum, and how the Council of Growing Companies (http://www.ceolink.org) has been doing that. By then we were just about the only ones left in the room so it was time for us all to head out the door.

75th and Madison was the place to be on Tuesday March 20th, as museum members and a critical mass of digital artists filled the Whitney Museum of American Art for the preview of “BitStreams” and “Data Dynamics,” the museum’s selection of creative works of digital technology and Internet applications. TSC will defer to the New York Times’ 3/25 Sunday Style section for those of you who are curious about the scene-makers. While the party was exciting, all of you have a chance to experience the not-to-be-missed exhibits.

“Bitstreams” fills an entire floor of the museum with works of art ranging from Inez van Lamsweerde’s monumental digitally “re-touched” photo, Me Kissing Vinoodh (Passionately), to Robert Lazzarini’s skulls. Lazzarini created this series of sculptures by laser-scanning an actual human skull to create three-dimensional CAD files, which he stretched and distorted digitally and “printed out” by a machine that rendered them three-dimensionally.

Downstairs, in the Whitney lobby you’ll find a collection of on-line installations that signify a watershed event in the history of art and the Internet. “Data Dynamics” is composed of five major installations that are web-enabled. Adrianne Wortzel’s Camouflage Town creates a theatrical scenario for a robot that lives in the Museum space and interacts with visitors. The robot is remotely controlled by visitors over the ‘net. A second major installation, Maciej Wisniewski’s Netomat, takes visitors for a ride into the Internet’s subconscious. Museum visitors can enter “search phrases” into web-based terminals in the dimly lighted “netomat theater.” Netomat then responds by filling the immersed environment with a collage of streaming images, text, animations, voices and music harvested from the web-based archives.

Find out more about the exhibit at www.whitney.org, and mark your calendars for the Whitney Contemporaries ART PARTY 2001: BitStreams from 9pm to 1am on Thursday April 19.

Monday, March 19, 2001

On March 14 I trekked down to Denver for the monthly Forum for Women Entrepreneurs meeting. This time it was held near Cherry Creek at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel. As Denver locations go, this was a good one since it is centrally located without the parking hassles and one-way streets that come with downtown. And with Tiffany & Co. and the Denver Country Club just a few miles away, it's ever so convenient for those who have places to go and people to see.

I saw many familiar faces including Patty Rivera, CEO/founder of KidItCard, Laurie Wagner, president/CEO of MD-IT, Erika Brown, founder/principal of NetGoddess, Deborah Arhelger, managing partner of DuoVoce Group, and Kelly Brandner, VP of PR firm Citigate Cunningham (a sponsor of the event). Suzy Thevenet, an attorney with Holme Roberts & Owen, told me the Venture Capital in the Rockies ski trip had been great and too bad I missed it. Bernice German, CEO of Peak Achievement, said that her educational software company now has a demo up and running on its website.

At dinner I sat with FWE co-founder/CEO Denise Brosseau, who was on her way back home to San Francisco after having just come from New York. She attended Springboard 2001, where twenty-five female entrepreneurs were pitching their companies to potential investors.

The evening's program involved a discussion about funding. Here are some highlights:

Catharine Merigold, a principal with Vista Ventures, a firm that looks for early stage technology companies ("that's where the fun is") with a defensible position such as a patent. She talked about evaluating money sources based on what you need and what they bring you. Sometimes you go with venture capital not because you need the money but because getting it gives your company credibility and may allow you to hire the right CEO. She was very upbeat, saying it's a great time to be in the market and there are incredible opportunities to create value.

Chris Wand, a NetBatsu development officer with SOFTBANK, said that SOFTBANK looks for early stage investments, takes a significant minority position, and seeks to shape strategy. (To an entrepreneur, such an investor can either be perceived as active or meddlesome.) The first step is getting VCs to pay attention. The best way to do that is to get an introduction from a credible source that VCs trust. In addition, don't send in a massive business plan. A teaser will do, perhaps two screenfuls of text to pique interest. He was not upbeat about the market, saying it is a crappy time to raise money and that SOFTBANK has an obligation to its currently funded companies.

Colleen Oberbreckling, director of business development for Sun Microsystem's Support Services Group, said that Sun invests in companies which will drive the industry and get Sun where it needs to go. If an idea doesn't scale, they won't consider it.

Lisa Ireland, a partner in The Hamilton Companies (a private partnership that invests in small to mid-cap companies), said that they look for an entrepreneur who shows a willingness to hand the company over to a new CEO if necessary.

On March 15 I attended "Public Values and the Architecture of the Information Age: The Future of Intellectual Property, Privacy and Open Source," put on by the University of Colorado School of Law. We sat in a mock court room and some of the presentations were appropriately steeped in legalese. Luckily for those of us who have trouble following massive amounts of case references, other presentations were geared for a lay audience.

Some highlights:

Julie Cohen, associate professor of law at Georgetown University, said that we should care about intellectual property issues because they impact freedom of speech. She emphasized that while the U.S. Supreme Court has called the Internet the most revolutionary public forum for free speech, it is not: commercial interests have exerted considerable control over online postings.

Stephen Keating, executive director of the Privacy Foundation, said that his organization looks for holes in Internet security. ... The widespread use of social security numbers has given identity thieves a skeleton key to open all your documents. ... The best analogy of what is happening today isn't "Big Brother," but Kafka's "The Trial." ... Major online privacy issues include (1) opt in/opt out, (2) secondary use of data, and (3) overlay of data (combining data obtained from mulitiple sources). At the heart of the debate is who owns information and how much is it worth. ... Politicians are sympathetic to privacy issues because they have experienced a loss of privacy themselves. Sometime during the next four years Congress is likely to pass some form of privacy legislation.

Douglas Sicker, director of global architecture for Level 3 Communications, predicts that technology, not legislation, will solve the privacy problem.

On March 19 I attended McData's first ever analysts' day. Although the company has been around since 1982, it has been public less than a year. The turnout was very good -- approximately 75 analysts, mostly from New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. For those who arrived a day early, there was an outing to Winter Park via the ski train.

Monday morning we were served a substantial breakfast at the Omni Interlocken Resort where everyone was staying. McData employees arrived in black button-down shirts and khaki pants, a look that had nothing to do with European military history and everything to do with making it easy for analysts to spot them to ask questions. Jack McDonnell, McDATA chairman/CEO, delivered the welcome and then turned the podium over to John McArthur, IDC VP of worldwide storage. He talked about the state of the market and the future of storage area networks (SANs). Basically he said that there has been and will continue to be an explosion of data and as a result storage capabilities must follow. This sentiment seemed to be shared by those in attendance because every analyst I talked to said long-term prospects for the industry look good.

There were several other presentations, followed by lunch at the Omni, and then a trip over to McData for more presentations and a tour. The showpiece is the $15 million Solutions Integration Lab (SIL) which tests complex SAN solutions using a customer's choice of hardware, software, and applications -- even when that involves competitors' products. The SIL has been designed to recreate a customer's systems to insure reliability before installation.

Learning about switches and directors is all well and good, but my particular interest is where McData wants to go with its new branding campaign. Since the company did an IPO last year and since it acts as both a manufacturer and a systems integrator, target audiences for its brand messaging include investors, OEM/resellers, and end users. Some customers go to McData for switching products; others for complete turnkey solutions. Either way, the goal is to make the McData brand synonymous with open storage networking. Well, here's a suggestion: sell the "legend" of McData, even if you have to fabricate one. Maybe something about crazy guys who started the company years ago at the base of the Rocky Mountains and who are now billionaires who plan to donate all their money to cure mad cow disease. The media likes a good story.

Saturday, March 17, 2001

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A brief bit about Spring Internet World ~ March 14-16, 2001
As you read above, JoAnna Minneci and I wandered around the convention floor of Spring IW in search of a good time. We were disappointed -- there were few fanciful exhibits and not many good giveaways, but at least two items stand out in my mind:
The so-called "booth" for Genuity took up enough room to house a small factory, and it's showcase piece was a cross between a state fair ride and the Blue Man Group. In a costly display, six large blue cranes holding human-sized copper cups moved up and down in a random fashion. As we were trying to figure out what the contraption was for, guys in black t-shirts stood up in each cup and started drumming on the sides of their lofty prisons. Sadly, instead of making an impression this company's booth made me wonder how the display got approved in the face of Califorinia's current electricity crisis!

The one good giveaway to be found was a blue foam dinosaur on a strong wire offered by EmergeCore Networks. Okay, so we were easy to please, but everyone who saw us with one asked us where to get it. Even the security guards were trying to take them home!

My other reason for being at IW was to work the booth for the LA chapter of the Association for Internet Professionals. The AIP-LA is a great group for net-oriented executives and they've helped me network around this big city. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the home office folks out of New York like Lindsey Clark and Chris Feathers, and some other city leaders such as Ken Halbeck of the OC chapter. Thursday night the AIP-LA hosted its annual IW Party at the Hotel Figueroa downtown (read about it below), so Friday morning we were all nursing hangovers of some sort and were glad it was the event's last day.

Sad to say that the tradeshow itself was a bust, but I got to meet JoAnna and several other interesting people so it wasn't all bad. We left the convention floor at 4:30 so JoAnna could make it to the Tier One party, and I headed back to Pasadena for BioBrew.

BioBrew ~ March 14, 2001
I'd been trying to attend a BioBrew meeting for many months, thinking it would be highly beneficial for my company to network with some bio-tech groups. BioBrew is focused on networking business professionals, academic scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and service providers in the biomedical and life science fields. They hold meetings bi-monthly, rotating their venues through Pasadena, Westwood, and Santa Barbara.

Started in 1998 in a microbrewery near UCLA, the meetings today are organized by Convergent Ventures, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage biomedical and life science technologies. I met the CEO, Bill Robbins, and alsoNima Shiva, who runs the group's day-to-day operations. After talking with these gentlemen awhile, it came out that I take care of the site updates for the AIP-LA, and Mr. Shiva immediately asked if I could do the same for BioBrew! Of course I said yes.

The meeting was held on the CalTech campus at the Athenaeum Club. This magnificent building was built in 1930 and meant to bring together academic staff leaders and visiting scholars for the exchanging of ideas among lovers of science, art, and literature. The mansion is furnished with lovely antiques and embellished with Mediterranean-style landscaping and tennis courts. We were in an east wing room featuring 30-foot ceilings, comfortable couches and a dominating 12-foot stoneworked fireplace. The food and drinks were quite good, and I made some very good contacts. Michael Partsch of Versant Ventures was hoping to meet people with ideas or inventions that his company could invest in, and Ronald Egge of the CFO Venture Network was looking for companies in need of financial services. Someone who I've been trying to meet was Stuart Farber, President of CO2 -- he is trying to finalize contracts to build a grand bio-tech incubator near CalTech; he introduced me to John Owens of KPMG and alsoCarolyn Siegal of Cell Matrix.

If the other meetings are as good as this one, I won't be missing the next event!

AIP-LA Hotel Figueroa Party ~ March 15, 2001
The annual AIP-LA Figueroa Party had great drinks but definitely needed more food for the 500-plus crowd. I sat down to enjoy a margarita and discovered the sandwiches were gone after only twenty minutes, so my next two drinks went straight to my head! The party was held on the large patio by the pool in the beautiful and eclectic hotel -- if you didn't know better you'd think you were in Morocco.

The fiesta was supposed to be a pool party, but the weather turned cooler that day and no one was going to take a dip in the chill! I met the most fascinating people, though, and look forward to working with them on their future ventures. Milan Stevanovich has numerous companies and is producing the upcoming TechFests, which will be in many US cities and Europe soon if he can find enough enthusiastic people and a little bit of funding. Francis Shephard is the CEO of an Australian multimedia/IT consortium called Glasshouse 101, and he's working with AIP to host and organize their many chapter sites. The ever-funny Harriett Held, executive director with the AIP, is always fun to talk to, and I found out that she's never figured out how to program her cell phone so I assisted her that night. A leader of one of the largest high-tech networking groups in the USA and she's unable to use her phone! For shame, Harriett!

The party is pretty much a blur to me for most of the night, because I met so many people and enjoyed myself so much I stopped trying to network and just chatted with everyone near me. I ended up leaving a bit early before someone could buy me another drink, but I have to say that this was one event related to Spring Internet World that was highly enjoyable, and very successful!

Oops. We were so wowed by Microsoft's Loft in last week's edition, we forgot to mention whose event it was! Courtney, The fabulous New York eComm was the generous host that brought together all those witty folks!

Courtney Pulitzer Venture Circle Members of Courtney Pulitzer Inner Circle, our club for internet-related professionals, can now enjoy our network and contacts for seeking venture funding. This is now a formal and regular function of Courtney Pulitzer Creations LLC. Whether a cutting-edge application technology or web-based service, and everything in between, we can find the right VCs suited for you. And if you are an investor, we have start-up companies seeking funding. For details: http://www.pulitzer.com/venturecircle/ or mailto:arthur@pulitzer.com

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